M/F Postdoc : Performance evaluation of GNSS-free LoRaWAN-based tracking systems

CNRS - National Center for Scientific Research; France; Sur place; EUR 42 000 - 56 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

CNRS, Laboratoire d'analyse et d'architecture des systèmes (LAAS) in France, seeks a Postdoctoral Researcher (R1) to advance energy-efficient localization. The project focuses on tracking with LoRaWAN networks and GNSS limitations, developing models and simulations.

You will model scenarios, build a realistic simulation environment, and test ideas under the SARA team led by Nicola Accettura and Balakrishna Prabhu. Strong background in probability, LoRaWAN, and Python is essential.

Qualifications

• Postdoctoral research experience in localization or wireless networks.
• Strong knowledge of probabilistic modeling and statistics.
• Experience with LoRaWAN and energy-efficient localization.
• Proficiency in Python programming.

Responsabilités

• Model the described scenario with theoretical tools.
• Develop a realistic simulation environment.
• Test conceived ideas within the project context.

Connaissances

Probability and statistics

LoRaWAN

Simulation environments

Python

Outils

Python libraries

Simulation tools

Description du poste

Organisation/Company CNRS Department Laboratoire d'analyse et d'architecture des systèmes Research Field Computer science Mathematics » Algorithms Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Application Deadline 1 Oct 2026 - 00:00 (UTC) Country France Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Offer Starting Date 1 Oct 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The adoption of positioning systems to locate people, animals, and objects is beneficial to the development of many applications, including food tracking, geofencing, targeted advertising, and traffic congestion management. Herein, the most known and exploited method for geo localization is the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). A GNSS-enabled device collects the position and timing signals sent by some dedicated satellites in direct radio visibility, and it uses such an information to compute its own relative position on the Earth. Then, the computed position can be disclosed to any tracking application through any communication technology. However, listening to the radio for incoming GNSS signals can quickly deplete the energy stored in the feeding batteries. For this reason, the application scope is limited. For instance, Alzheimer patients or pets could not be reliably monitored: once the battery is discharged, localizing them would not be possible anymore. Remarkably, a significant research interest has been raised by the need of a localization infrastructure able to guarantee energy efficient communications (e.g., when radio transceivers of tracked devices are fed by batteries that must last for years) while keeping precise position estimates. More recently, Long Range Wide Area Networks (LoRaWAN) have been proposed as solution to leverage very low power geo localization. However, the gain in energy efficiency comes at the cost of a coarse-grained positioning system. This natural trade-off is still acceptable for some applications that do not have stringent requirements on the expected precision of the location estimate. A wise approach to the design of novel localization architectures should also account that GNSS can suffer from outages (e.g., for military purposes) or breakdowns (e.g., due to increased solar activities).
The objective of this postdoc is to investigate the ability of a multi-gateway LoRaWAN network to track mobile objects systems without GNSS.

The expected result of the related research activity is the definition of algorithms able to predict the behavior of moving objects. Herein, the precision of the tracking system is fully linked to the frequency with which the target object reports its presence, so that the precision of the position estimate can be traded-off for a higher number of tracked objects. To achieve such an ambitious goal, all possible data helping navigation should be used, including accelerometers or range-free localization techniques.
The recruited postdoc will be in charge of (i) modeling the pictured scenario with theoretical instruments, (ii) developing a realistic simulation environment, and (iii) testing the conceived ideas.

The Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of Systems (LAAS) is a unit of the CNRS with activities in many fields.
The activity will take place within the SARA (Services and Architectures for Advanced Networks) team under the direction of Nicola Accettura ( [e-mail] ) and Balakrishna Prabhu ( [e-mail] ), in the context of the project ANR JCJC LAPSUS.

In-depth knowledge of:

• Probability and statistics
• LoRaWAN
• simulation environments
• Python
• Python